820 PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY'. 
mucous membranes. 3rd. Conditions or temperature of the 
body. 4th. The nature of the respirations. 5th. The state 
or character of the natural secretions and evacuations. 
1st. Of the signs or symptoms and accompanying informa¬ 
tion afforded by the pulse in disease—of the rationale of the 
processes concerned in the production of the pulse—we will 
not stay to inquire; it belongs more properly to another de¬ 
partment of your studies; sufficient for our purpose it is to 
know that, meaning literally “ I beat,” we regard it as the 
beating of the arteries from the afflux of the blood in response 
to the contractions of the heart. 
The different characters or conditions of the pulse in 
disease are referred—lst/to the number of pulsations or beats 
in a given time; 2nd, to the rapidity or degree of quickness 
with which each pulsation is accomplished; 3rd, to the cha¬ 
racter of volume, hardness, or strength of each pulsation; 
4th, to the equality or inequality, either of the pulsations 
themselves, or of the intervals occurring between each; 
5th, to the various impressions each pulsation may produce 
on the finger. 
The different characters and names which have been given 
to the pulse are exceedingly numerous and very confusing, 
while few, if any, of these probably may with truth be re¬ 
garded as simply a deviation from the normal character in 
anv of the different manifestations now named; that is to 
say, that rarely do we in disease find a pulse simply a fre¬ 
quent pulse or an irregular pulse; most usually it is a modi¬ 
fication of two or more of the characters under which we 
have attempted to classify them. 
Also it is necessary to remember that, with every other 
exhibitional phenomena of disease, the condition of the 
pulse alone is not to be relied upon as of itself an unfailing- 
index of functional or structural change; that, to be of any 
real value, it must be read or interpreted in connection with 
other features, symptoms, or indices of changes. The varia¬ 
tions also to which, even in the same breeds, or even the 
same individuals, under somewhat varying conditions, the 
pulse is liable must not escape our notice. Under circum¬ 
stances as nearly similar as possible animals of the same 
breed may be found exhibiting a variation, as to frequency 
of the number of the pulsations, extending to five or even ten 
in the minute. 
1st. Alterations of the number of the pulsations in a given 
time. The frequent pulse (pulsus frequens ), one which 
strikes more frequently in a given time. This must not be 
confounded with the pulsus celer (the quick pulse), one which 
